Balancing an urban reality with Big Mountain dreaming

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Monthly Archives: September 2012

When it comes to soups, I tend to gather inspiration from recipes rather than follow recipes. I’m not sure why, but I’ve been wanting white bean chili all week. Today, I made some. It was fabulous. The recipe I used goes something like this:

Saute 1/4 onion, 2 gloves garlic, spinach, and cauliflower – add some cumin and italian seasoning. Once golden/wilted, puree with 1 can rinsed beans and 1/2+ cup broth. Blend until you get a texture you like.

Pour puree into pan with the rest of the broth. Once at a boil, bring to a simmer, add corn and 1 can rinsed beans. Toss in a pinch of salt and basil. Stir every once in a while.

Saute chicken with cumin and the rest of the garlic. Once cooked, add to pot. Saute mushrooms, onions, and peppers. Once cooked, add to soup.

Taste mixture, season if needed. Simmer for 10-15 minutes? (I took a shower and didn’t time it, so…..)

Stir and serve!

This got great reviews from the other person eating it with me – and myself! I used closer to 2 cups of liquid and when I do this again, I will use less. Also, I will make the chicken chunks smaller and add a little more cauliflower and spinach to the puree.

Looking forward to cooking this again, and making up some new soups, stews, and chilies! I will also take a photo of this tomorrow as the leftovers are in the fridge right now!

Although I do enjoy a relaxing bike ride home at 0530, as you can enjoy the scenery and think about grand things in life…sometimes you think about things like the phrase: “I f@&#%ing love this sh#t!” Someone said this as they were climbing a magnificent wall, and I just thought to myself, what was the benefit or purpose of using those cuss words.

First, and I’m no grammarian by any means, but in that phrase, an adjective is turned into an adverb. or at least where you would normally place an adverb…. Without the cusses, the phrase is “I love this!” why is that not sufficient? or you could use a normal adverb “I truly love this” or be casual “This is awesome!”

Second, clearly, the climber did not truly love sh#t. They put great personnel risk, finances, and creature comfort into going on the climb. Granted, saying they loved climbing would be redundant as “this” implies the activity they are currently doing. In theory, “this” is ambiguous and could refer to the placement of pitons, a specific hold, tying a knot, belaying their partner…..but the use of sh#t does not further clarify “this” unless there was a magnificent pile of goat crud that the climber saw and was enamoured with. Given the peak, I would say 100% unlikely.

The other question that came to mind as I thought, clearly far too long about this phrase, was does the increased use of vulgarities in our society render them less meaningful? To an extent yes, but the tone and pairing in which the vulgarity is used is more the determining factor to its meaning and impact. Such as, “Holy motherf@#$&ing sh#t balls” followed by “this is the best soup I have ever tasted” would be an odd, but enormous complement. Yet followed by a concerned tone of “What did you do?!” could exemplify the shock of seeing someone eat goat crud, or something far worse.

All this to say, I should bike faster so I do not contemplate whether f$&#%ing is an adverb or adjective and the impact of cuss words in society.

Oh yeah, it would also be great for increasing my mileage, loosing post-heart-crumbling-ice-cream-eating summer weight, better fitness, and beating more people on the trail 😉

Since I’m off the wheat, I’ve had to learn how to bake again, which is an adventure! I’ve definitely found some delicious GF baking tips (and “clean eating”) – such as using black beans to make brownies and cupcakes! who knew?

Tonight, I’m trying a cornbread recipe replacing the flour with a gf flour mix, I didn’t do anything special to the amounts, but did substitute the buttermilk with goat’s milk yoghurt and greek yoghurt…it’s in the oven right now. 🙂 I shall post on how it goes.

instead of cake form, I used cupcakes and baked for 18-20 minutes and they tested clean. I also used 3/4 cup sugar 1/4 splenda, and all in my blender. It was amazing. The clean-up especially. In a couple cupcakes I put in a few chocolate chips, oh lord. awesome. They are dense little cakes, but fabulous.

So yes, I neglected my blog…biking…and running for all of August and part of July. You know how people get all sad and blue in winter? That is me in summer. I never realized until this year, how much I dislike summer. I’m sure an event this spring didn’t help the situation much, but let me tell you this – once I turned off my AC, I was beaming again and back on the saddle.

Fall. My favorite season. My one true love. The last time I enjoyed a stateside fall was in 2008, and then I only got about a month, if that. Thankfully I did get to head up to Duluth MN with the family and romp around the forests before I had to leave American fall for Afghan fall…followed by Iraqi fall….they just aren’t the same let me tell you.

Yes, I am STOKED about fall. Yes, I am one of the last humans remaining who still feels “stoked” is an appropriate and relevant word to describe one’s emotional status. Since this lovely fall has started I’ve not missed a bike ride into work, in fact I get sad that my commute is only 7 miles! I will soon need to take an even longer way home to just enjoy this weather more.

Another way I know I am over this summer funk, I’ve started baking. I found an AMAZING gluten free chocolate cake recipe, which I made entirely in my blender. I made it once with splenda, which was alright, and a 2nd time half sugar half splenda and in cupcake form…ah-mazing. and my gluten eating coworkers agreed! I bought yeast, so I can try making bread and other such things.

I feel alive again.

I feel happy.

I love life.

More posts to follow and I apologize for those who were/are following for my absence! It’s fall and Caribou is back!